Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Splish's Scavenger Hunt

This recommendation doesn't cost you anything... and you gotta, gotta, gotta go do it.

I posted about the summer reading program that TOS is doing this year. Well, one of the "prizes" in this program is weekly scavenger hunts. You go following the clues, and there is a prize of some sort at the end. You can get to Week 6 here.

Do it. You have until Monday, I think, as I'm pretty sure new clues are posted on Tuesday.

Okay, I have to give you a huge hint. TOS has a new line of ebooks -- the WannaBe series. They are on sale this week... but even better than that, well... just go do the scavenger hunt, would you??

I am very impressed with these books, though I have only read through the Firefighter one and have not used it with my kids yet. Let me tell you what is in it though:

There is some introductory stuff

about a seven page article about the history of firefighting, equipment, and building codes. Very detailed, but totally kid-friendly

about a four page story called "My Life as a Firefighter" which is fantastic

Requirements for becoming a firefighter, generalized "for most departments" which is a nice list

An article about how much firefighters are paid, with space for you to graph out salaries

a story about a firehouse dog, two pages, very kid-friendly

a quiz

four storytelling/writing prompts

science activities on robots, very detailed, using pretty basic supplies in building a model arm

three pages of firefighter math

a section of vocabulary, with a fill-in-the blank story, word search, and crossword puzzle

bunches of pages of copywork

a couple coloring pages

suggested memory verses

a bunch of activity suggestions, which could easily make for a fantastic theme birthday party

a couple pages of suggested books and websites

and answers, of course, to the various worksheet type pages

I'm very, very impressed... especially for $4.50 on sale right now. But seriously, go send your kids on the scavenger hunt before you spend any money :)